Joy in the Work!

Buenas Tardes!!

Oh the fun of being on a mission. It really is the best time to be out on a mission. We have so many people interested because of Romney. Some lady asked for the Book of Mormon because she wanted to know what kind of man she was voting for... she of course said no to us coming over later to teach her more, but she said she would surely call us if she had any questions. I want everyone who has written me or emailed me to know that I always read them and very greatly appreciate them! Even if I don't reply. Things are just so hectic here! But good hectic... I have to keep reminding myself.

Oh boy the days go by slow and the weeks go by fast! Here's the basic gist of this week.

Monday was Pday of course. We went to Taco Bell for lunch because a lady in the ward gave us 20 bucks for food (she lives far away so she said she doesn't want to make us drive out there). It's a little bit strange to do normal things I would do at home as a missionary. But it was delicious! We learned something of one of our investigator family that I never wanted to hear. It just makes me realize how much the gospel blesses peoples lives and how ugly life can be sometimes. The thing is, this family is so ready for baptism. They just have some kinks they need to work out before they can be baptized. It makes me sad for them, and yet so much more ready to share the gospel with everyone.

Tuesday we did a lot of knocking on doors... which I just have to mention, I dislike very much. But it's getting better. I'm not apprehensive at all anymore to go knock on the door, I would just rather have appointments. The thing is the knocking on doors doesn't bring many results, but at least we are planting that initial seed. Sometimes, maybe one out of 10 doors that you knock on, the people inside will be interested. Although, most of the time you can't tell if its the southern hospitality coming out, or are they really interested. The baptists are always the greatest (which is the majority of the people down here) they will try to fight with us on the bible all the time and tell us how we are going against all the bible teaches... we never try to fight back but they usually get caught up in their words when we show them what the bible actually says. Suffice it to say, most of them are not interested. One lady we contacted at the door, made an appointment for another day, when that day came she called and cancelled and then while we were at the library, we saw her there. The Lord is not done with her yet ;) We went to this one house the other day and pulled up in front of there house and there door was opened. We said a prayer like we do before every time we leave the car and when we were done the door was closed and they pretended like they weren't home. People think were dumb or something ;)

Wednesday we had a trunk or treat thing at the church which was fun. We had our district meeting as well, which I don't know if I said, but our district consists of 4 girls and 2 guys so it's pretty fun.

Thursday we met a lot of black people. So Serph, I'm working hard to do what you said and baptize some black people ;) We got to go to the "projects" of Florence which some members of the ward are afraid of, but I didn't feel like I was in danger at all. We had an appointment there but she wasn't home. We went tracking near one of our referrals and ended up finding this lady named Trina and she let us in right away without us saying anything but we were missionaries for the church. Her name was Trina and she has three daughters, Keesha, Neesha, and Shamerica. We can't really tell if they are interested or just like our company, but they keep inviting us back, so hopefully it's both. We really learn that we should really talk to everyone because even if they aren't interested they may lead you to someone who is. That's why it is so important to ask for referrals from everyone. We went to this home of this older lady in the ward, who wont let us in her house because she has 20 cats and 5 dogs, so we had to sit out on her porch while we were teaching and there was swarms of mosquitoes outside so my body looks like I have chicken pox. It's great.

Friday we went to a further out part of Florence to talk to some inactives out there who speak spanish. Yay Spanish! Sister Martinez who is in our ward has 9 siblings, most of them in florence and some of them inactive. They live near eachother so we went to go see them and their families. One of her sisters is so sweet but I am so sad for her. She has about 5 kids and is married to a man who is very anti mormon. She wants to come back to church but he is not for it and doesn't want the children to go... she is so sad you can just see it in her eyes and I knew she wanted to tell us something but her husband was in the kitchen so she didn't. The more families I see without the Gospel in their lives, the more I realize how much the gospel has blessed my family and I couldn't imagine not having it.

Saturday we went to do some service. We are asked to do about 2 hours of service each week (obviously thats not a limit) and we decided to go and rake the leaves for one of the families in the ward, because the yards here are COVERED in leaves. Well we ended up just doing the next house and the next house too. By the time we were done, the yards were pretty much covered again, but it looked a little bit better. It has gotten blasted cold in the past few days. Apparently we get the best of both worlds here with super high temperature in summer and pretty cold in the winter. Of course it's not as bad as rexburg but it's cold if your wearing a dress all day. We have another investigator Deedee, who is really great. I love going over to see her except her house reaks of smoke. She wants to be baptized but she has too many problems with the Word of Wisdom so we are working with her on that. She says she liked everything else we were teaching until we got to the Word of Wisdom part. Hopefully she'll pull through.

Sunday we got fed by one of the members and it was a good southern meal. Most of the time I haven't liked the food, but we have to eat it anyway, but yesterday, the Kelleys made a great homemade southern meal. It was nice to go see members of the ward. We atleast know we are welcomed there. They have the cutest daughter too who is 4 and loves to talk. 

The work is going forth! And although somedays I want to sleep in and not get up, I'm loving every minute of it... Or at least I make myself love every minute ;) Spanish is super frustrating but it's coming... slowly. It's hard because I don't get to speak it all the time. But I know I was sent to Florence for a reason even if it is just to baptize that one spanish family, I'm happy with that. And it's a good thing I know english because my companion has a hard time with the Accents :)

I love you all!!! I hope all is well and I thank you so so much for all of your prayers.

Love Hermana Decker

P.S. I'm changing my guess for Braydens call. I'm guessing some asian country like Japan or Hong Kong. Or maybe Germany... 

Greetings from Alabama!

Hola Familia!

Oh my goodness I have so much to tell you and so little time! I don't even know where to start! Well my P-Day is on Monday so be expecting emails on Mondays. Florence is so beautiful, it actually reminds me a lot of Indiana but it's a little bit more hilly. The weather has been pretty nice thus far. It's a perfect temperature, only a bit humid, and it's only rained last night. The mosquitoes love me and so I've been breaking out the Hydrocortisone a lot. We are near a small university, the university of north Alabama so we have a lot of students walking around and in our apartment complex.

My trainer is amazing. Her name is Sister Intriago, and like you've heard, she is a native. She is from Ecuador! She is originally a Temple Square sister (la manzana del Templo in spanish) and she learned english in the MTC because she was supposed to be an english missionary. They sent her here for a bit and now she is with me so she is pretty excited she gets to teach and speak in spanish. She is so sweet and so cute, I feel really blessed to have her. I get to help her with her English and she gets to help me with my Spanish so it works out well. (her english is 10x better than my spanish however). We speak in spanish as much as possible, but actually we teach in both english and spanish so I get to speak both quite a bit. It's kind of hard to switch back and forth but I think it will help a lot in the long run to switch so easily. I however probably won't be learning as fast as some of my friends who are only speaking spanish, but I know in time it will come.

I realized how incredibly shy I am even though I think I am not, but I have already had to learn to open up a lot more. We went tracking my second day here and I had no idea what to say and I didn't want to intrude, but Sister intriago was very patient and just said I just have to open my mouth. I have to remind myself this is salvation were talking about! were not selling vacuums or anything! We do a lot of service, as much as possible. If somebody needs something done, we are there. When we first got here we went to this old southern ladies house to help her put her plants in the greenhouse. I came home with a lot of bug bites and I'm sure some spiders in some of my clothes, but it really does bring a joy to serve these people.

The ward is great, small, but not small enough to just be a branch. Most of them are english speakers but we have a few spanish speaker's too. Oh! I forgot to mention, we have an english class every wednesday in the church, so the first wednesday here was my first experience with spanish. Some of them speak english pretty well, they just need help with pronounciation and some of the grammer, and others cannot speak english at all and we work with those ones. I help with the pronunciation and Sister Intriago does all the explaining :) 

I've come to realize how I like the Spanish speakers a lot more than the English ones. The spanish people are always very willing to open their door and listen to us and most of the english ones either slam the door in our faces (that's only happened once) or are to stuck in their ways to want to listen to us. (maybe it's because I can't understand the spanish speakers, but they seem a lot nicer). 

Hmm, what next.... OH! we have a baptism this Sunday. I obviously wasn't the one to teach the guy, but I'm excited none the less. He is a great guy who has been going to church for a while with his member wife who is in the relief society presidency. The ward has been waiting for his baptism forever! We also have a date for a couple people in a hispanic family. The son who is 22, we are almost positive will be baptized on the date, which is next saturday. We had a lesson with him two days ago I think and it was the most powerful lesson I have been in so far. We had a member of the ward who spoke spanish come with us, Hermana Margarita, who is amazing, and I couldn't understand everything but the spirit was so strong that all of us were shedding some tears and I do not cry easily. He knows I don't speak spanish very well so he was very patient with my testimony and teaching. His mom is supposed to get baptized next week as well but she is living with her boyfriend who she want's to get married to but he first needs to divorce his wife in Mexico, so it may be a long process before she can. 

We go into a lot of houses that are... old and reak of smoke, but the people we teach are always loving and kind. Yesterday we went on knocked doors in a trailer park with a bunch of hispanics and door after door none of them answered. We think maybe they knew we were coming ;) But I know that it was because we needed to talk to this one man who was working outside. When we went up to talk to him he was funny and said he had talked to missionaries before. He has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and after a long process of Sister intriago and him talking back and forth I got the gist of most of what they said, but we think he is really interested and I am so excited to meet with him and his family! He works a lot so I don't know when we can, but hopefully it will be soon. Bah! I cannot even describe the joy this work has already brought me and how much I have already learned. I wish I could tell you all every little detail but it's so hard in the limited time we have. I have to get to work! We also work a lot with the inactive members because we really want to work on "The Rescue" which is what they call helping inactive members come back.

Basically our day consists of working out in the morning, which is hard because sister intriago is short and I am tall so when we run I have to do high kicks or something to get a work out because we run at such different paces. WE study for one hour of personal, two hours of companion (because I'm new, it's usually only 1), and one hour of language study, so it's a lot of studying. The rest of the day we have appointments and tracking.

We have some other sisters living with us in the apartment complex now because they couldn't find a place for them in their town right next to us. So our apartment is full.

Everything is great though! the first few days were hard and I am still so frustrated with the language, but it is getting better. One day I will be able to speak it! Hopefully. Love you all so so much! I hope all is well at home. Oh! if you have anything you need done at the house Mom, call the missionaries! you have no idea how much they love to serve! I hope you are all being missionaries as well. The members are always the best missionaries :) I love the south, love the mission, love my companion, love the gospel, love spanish ;) and love the Lord, so It can't get much better than that!

Love, Hermana Decker

PS.. so glad president Holzapfel told yall about the blog. Make sure to keep up with it. Also, I was able to get on facebook for like 3 minutes to become friends with the president and his wife and become part of the group on facebook. I don't know why, but maybe they will post pictures and tag us or something. OH! and make a mormon profile on mormon.org. We ecourage all the members to do that.

(phew! that was a lot of information there)

Last MTC Pics

6 more days!

Familia!!

Hola! So I got all my flight itinerary (is that how you spell it?) and I will be out of here next tuesday at 4:00 in the morning. Yep that's what I said, 4 o clock. I am super excited and yet at the same time super scared. I believe that my plane is leaving at 7... I actually don't really know what time but it's in the 7 o clock hour. I will get my flight stuff and email ya'll really quick later. The good news is that I will get to call home and talk to ya'll :D The bad news is that I don't really know when but it will probably be in the wee hours of the morning for yall so around 5-6 AM. I do have about an hour layover in Atlanta so I may be able to get in a few minutes there to but we will have to see. Anyways, so october 9th in the morning, be ready for me to call. I don't want to call and have nobody answer like it usually goes with the phone at home. I will get you the specifics on the flights later. But yea, I'm super excited!

I have been speaking in straight spanish for about 4-5 days now and it is so hard. I have been learning a lot more, but I end up just not talking to people because I don't know how to say it in spanish. My companion is probably ready to kill me because she is having a hard time understanding anything I say and plus it takes me about 5 times longer to say a sentence in spanish as it does in english, but I just keep reminding her that this is all we will be doing in a week so she better get used to it :)

So what the coordinating sister is, is basically it's like a zone leader but for the girls in the zone... which only consists of the 5 that are in my room. I basically just oversee them and make sure they are doing okay and talk to them about their companionships and so forth. I have a meeting with the zone leaders and district leaders on sundays and tuesdays nights and we just talk about how everyone is doing and how we can be better leaders and help everyone stay positive and healthy and obedient. 

I love the hair turban thing mom. I wear everytime I shower and my roommates like to make fun of me because I look like a middle eastern or something. The half shirts are awesome too, perfect for hot weather. I LOVE getting letters from ya'll (wink wink). We have a joke that everyone just kind of forgets about you after about a month or a month and a half and I've realized it's not so much of a joke as we make it out to be ;) And Colby! I have written you a hand written letter so stop your boobing.  I want to hear from you all and how everything is going with school and stuff! What's up Brooky? Its been like 2 weeks! ;) Your supposed to keep me up to date with all the drama and stuff in the fam ;) Well since I'm leaving, the last day I can recieve letters is probably monday, So if your going to dearelder anything, do it on Sunday and then anything else will probably need to be sent to my Alabama address. Could you put that address up on my Facebook, just in case one of these days one of my friends decide to write me.

So now to this week. Hmm... Well we sang our farewell song on sunday since we have general conference this weekend. Our elders are pretty much tone deaf so it was sort of kind of hilarious to hear them try to sing. But I was so proud of them for getting up there and singing their hearts out. One of our Elders who is going to Uruguay has been sick for 2 weeks and in his room for a week. We can't decide if it's mostly in his head or what but we just keep praying he gets better so he can get out there and serve the people of Uruguay. We had mission conference on Sunday and it was great. One of the presidency talked about crooked paths and what I got out of the talk was, we many times follow the curvy paths of the world, and God sorrows as we try to make our way down those tough and tiring paths. Those paths aren't easy to go down and yet we pick them anyways. But we can correct those paths and walk on a much easier path, which is the straight and narrow path of the Lord. Later on sunday we watched a talk by Elder Holland entitled "Missions are forever." IT was so great, he is so funny and yet so powerful at the same time. What I got out of that talk was, Your mission is real life! we always say I can't wait till we get back to real life, but this is real. We shouldn't come home to what we think is "real life" or back to what we think is "normal". This mission should change us for the better and I can already see that in my life. Two months and I feel like a completely different person. I am definitely so completely different than I was a year ago. The Lord can change you and make you better, you just have to turn to him and put your life into his hands.

Bray, I got a scripture for you. Alma 61:14. Look it up! I thought you might like it. Alright so I only have 2 minutes left and I want to leave time to send pictures and send you all that flight stuff so I'll probably write the fam a letter later! Love you all so much and miss ya! Les Amo!!!

Con Amor, Hermana Masey Decker